Snakes (蛇, Hebi), also known as kyodaija (巨大蛇; Literally meaning "Giant Snakes"), are the signature summons of Orochimaru, his assistant, Kabuto Yakushi, and his students: Sasuke Uchiha and Anko Mitarashi. They reside at the Ryūchi Cave.

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The snakes vary greatly in size, body mass and species, from small enough to hide in one's sleeves to larger than buildings, and thin enough to be used to tie someone's hands to strong enough to choke a colossal animal like the Island Turtle. Although common snakes cannot speak human language like toads, some of their summoners could communicate with them. They are able to detect live beings by their heat and smell in order to track and lead their summoners to their prey.

Orochimaru frequently summons snakes in battle, either having them attack for him or instructing them to carry out other tasks. While most snakes are very obedient and do as they are instructed, the largest snake, Manda, demanded a sacrifice of a hundred humans in exchange for helping Orochimaru.
Snakes have also mastered the use of natural energy to enter a Sage Mode of their own. The only known way to learn it is in the Ryūchi Cave with the White Snake Sage.

A giant brown snake was summoned in pair by Orochimaru with the aid of Kabuto to fight against Jiraiya and Tsunade.[5]
A large white snake was summoned by Sasuke to defend against Deidara's explosive clay. In the manga, it was almost disintegrated as a result, but in the anime it merely suffered several burns.
A giant blue snake was summoned by Anko to destroy a wall in the Demon Island Laboratory.

Mutated two-headed snakes summoned by Ichi, which can further extend more snakes from their mouths.

Clone Snakes created by Kabuto using Orochimaru's DNA. They were used to recreate Hidan,[9] a four-tailed copy of Naruto Uzumaki, and formed together into a giant black snake to drown Naruto.

Orochimaru is heavily associated with snakes: his personality, appearance and even name are snake-like or orientated. After many experiments and forbidden techniques, Orochimaru's true form indeed became that of a snake. Orochimaru was also able to use senjutsu, and with this knowledge he developed the cursed seals.
Anko Mitarashi (Incapacitated)
The first of Orochimaru's students to sign a contract with snakes, as well as the first to gain the cursed seal and survived. Anko learned several forbidden and snake-related techniques with Orochimaru, such as the Twin Snakes Mutual Death Technique. In the anime, it was also stated that she had built up an immunity to venom.

Sasuke mainly used the snakes he summoned as shields to defend himself. He would later summon them once again during the Fourth Shinobi World War when he summoned Aoda to the battlefield.
Kabuto Yakushi (Incapacitated)
At first, Kabuto only aided Orochimaru in summoning snakes while his arms were disabled. He later began to summon snakes on his own after implanting Orochimaru's remains into himself. Kabuto continued Orochimaru's research and discovered the Ryūchi Cave, where he learned senjutsu from the White Snake Sage. He gained access to a Sage Mode which, according to him, allowed him to figuratively transcend from a snake into a "dragon".

Yaichi experiments with his snakes, his snakes are able to spit him up, and he can be miles away. Another thing is that they can do just about every Sage Mode technique that Yaichi can do, no matter the size. He gets his snakes from Ryūchi Cave, so they all are Sages.